Clothing Culture, 1350-1650Catherine Richardson Addressing the subject of clothing in relation to such fundamental issues as national identity, social distinction, gender, the body, religion and politics, Clothing Culture, 1350-1650 provides a springboard into one of the most fascinating yet least understood aspects of social and cultural history. Nowhere in medieval and early modern European society was its hierarchical and social divisions more obviously reflected than in the sphere of clothing. Indeed, one of the few constant themes of writers, chroniclers, diarists and commentators from Chaucer to Pepys was the subject of fashion and clothes. Whether it was lauding the magnificence of court, warning against the vanity of fashion, describing the latest modes, or decrying the habit of the lower orders to ape the dress of their social superiors, people throughout history have been fascinated by the symbolism, power and messages that clothes can project. Yet despite this contemporary interest, clothing as a subject of historical enquiry has been a largely neglected field of academic study. Whilst it has been discussed in relation to various disciplines, it has not in many cases found a place as a central topic of analysis in its own right. The essays presented in this volume form part of a growing recent trend to put fashion and clothing back into the centre ground of historical research. From Russia to Rome, Ireland to France, this volume contains a wealth of examples of the numerous ways clothing was shaped by, and helped to shape, medieval and early modern European society. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the study of clothing can illuminate other facets of life and why it deserves to be treated as a central, rather than peripheral, facet of European history. |
Contents
The Cultural Significance of Costume Books | 29 |
Foreign Clothes on | 49 |
Tomb Effigies and Archaic Dress in SixteenthCentury Ireland | 63 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Clothing Culture, 1350-1650 Catherine Richardson,Reader in Renaissance Studies Catherine Richardson No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
apparel appearance attire BL Harley body British Library Calvinist Cambridge University Press church Cloth Breeches cloth of gold clothing bequests clothing culture colours consumption context costume books court courtesans Daneau Debate deponents discourse display distinctions Domostroi doublet dress Early Modern England England English essay example fabrics fashion female Figure foreign fourteenth garments gender gifts Gorboduc gown Hans Weigel Henry VIII History household identity individuals Ireland Irish items of clothing Jean de Léry John king's late medieval Léry linked livery London Margaret Fitzgerald material culture medieval moral naked narrative Oxford particular Paston Letters poor popular prostitutes Reformed relationship Renaissance royal Russian sartorial servants seventeenth century sexual significance silk sixteenth century sleeves social society specific Stallybrass status suggest sumptuary sumptuary laws symbolic testamentary testators textiles Thomas Tupinamba University of Kent Velvet Breeches visual wardrobe wearing William Lambarde women worn